Woman Defends Her Viral — but Fake — $500 'Brr Basket' for Son's Girlfriend: 'Just a Regular Mom' (Exclusive)

• A woman who went viral on TikTok for an extravagant 'brrr basket" made for a 15-year-old admits that it was "fake"

• Lindsey Noden tells PEOPLE that she did gift her son's girlfriend a gift basket for the holidays — but that it wasn't quite as over-the-top as the one she shared on TikTok

• According to Noden, her intent wasn't malicious, but just a way to have fun, and increase views, on social media

A woman on TikTok is defending herself after sharing that a viral gift basket she allegedly made for her son's girlfriend was actually an "exaggerated" version of the one she really made.

In a video posted earlier this month, TikTok creator Lindsey Noden made an over-the-top "brrr basket" for her 15-year-old son's girlfriend — one complete with a Stanley cup, body lotion, Apple watch, Apple AirPods, gift cards to Target and Starbucks, candy and a $20 bill.

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That video has since been viewed more than 27 million times, racking up thousands of comments — many of them stunned at the cost of the items in the gift basket. And some of the commenters accused Noden of manufacturing the gift basket purely for clicks, too.

In a follow-up video, Noden admitted that the gift basket wasn't entirely real, calling herself "just a regular mom."

"You guys are losing your mind over brrr basket," Noden said in the later video, adding: "Yes, I got her a brrr basket. It was so cute. ... Yes, I made the video, yes it was fake. Was it for views? Was it for money? That's how social media is."

Speaking to PEOPLE in an exclusive interview, she says she doesn't want people to get the wrong idea, clarifying that she did indeed make her son's girlfriend a gift basket — albeit, one without AirPods or an Apple watch.

"My son really does have a girlfriend, we really do like her, and I really did put together a basket for her," she says, adding that both her son and her 13-year-old daughter helped her create the original gift basket.

And once she gave her son's girlfriend the real basket, they all had an idea.

"It was actually my son's girlfriend who said, 'You need to redo this for TikTok,' " Noden tells PEOPLE. "And I said, I will ... but maybe I'll exaggerate it a little bit."

Related: Woman 'Apologized' to Mailman with Gift. His Reaction Went Viral — Then He Discovered She Posted It Online (Exclusive)

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So, she set up her camera, got the actual basket she had given her son's girlfriend, and added to it — with items from around the house (the Apple Watch and AirPods, for instance, were just empty boxes of items that she or her family members had already had for years) along with some of her own favorite beauty products. The $20 bill? Pulled from her wallet (Noden adds she would "never" actually just give her son or his girlfriend cash for no reason).

"I posted it at 10:30 at night," she says. "Within a day, it was at 4 million views and growing."

Noden was soon innundated with comments — and many of them, at least initially, were positive.

"It was a lot of 'You're the best' for making this for her," she says. But then, they grew negative. "Things like, 'You're just posting this for clout,' or 'You should be ashamed of yourself.' "

A few days later, her 13-year-old daughter went to school and began getting questions about the video from friends.

"People from school were asking, 'Are you embarrassed your mom lied?' " she says.

So, she posted the follow-up video acknowledging that, no, she had not actually gifted her son's girlfriend an extravagant gift box.

But then, that video went viral, and the negative comments piled up even further.

"People started stitching the video, accusing me of being out for money, or clout, or views," she says.

The negativity became so intense that she briefly made some videos private, and limited comments on others.

Noden is quick to acknowledge that she does use social media as a form of income, and is part of TikTok's Creator Fund, which rewards users with money in exchange for views. But the formula used to determine what's worthy of a large payout, and what isn't, is murky, with Noden herself admitting that even videos with 10 million views might net as little as 14 cents.

"I live in a regular, middle-class neighborhood," she says. "I'm a hairdresser. I have a salon in my garage, my kids do travel sports. We are very basic."

In other words, the exaggerated "brrr basket" isn't exactly a winning lottery ticket. But the increased views and following certainly don't hurt — though comes with a hefty side of negativity.

Noden says she can handle the vitriol — and the many people reporting her videos, despite them not going against any TikTok policy — but she adds that the anger is a bit illogical.

"What's the difference between what I did and the women who make videos of themselves cooking, saying they've made everything from scratch?" she says, alluding to the so-called "tradwife" content that's gone viral on many corners of the Internet. "We all know those women aren't actually milking the goats."

She continues: "When I posted the basket, I got comments about how over-the-top it was. And when I post about it not actually being that over-the-top, I get negative comments about that. You can't win."

Noden adds that her real intent behind the video was simply to have fun — not to rage-bait, or to "be mean."

"I have no control over what goes viral on TikTok," she says. "And I don't necessarily want to be known as this 'brrr basket' person. My kids work — I don't buy them fancy stuff. But I do enjoy the comedy of it all."

She adds: "The negativity is okay for me but I do worry about my kids. But I have one friend who is a larger creator and I asked how she deals with this kind of backlash. And she gave great advice. She said, 'In a week, they'll have someone else to talk about.' "

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